Highlighting key writings from Professor Richard Pring's international career in education, the texts in this book provide a historical perspective in relation to current debates about philosophy of education in the UK and internationally, drawing attention to issues of current concern. The text explores key themes such as critical realism, teachers as researchers and a way forward for policy through carefully selected examples from Richard Pring's writings. A short introduction is provided for each chapter to help (...) readers to understand the significance of what is presented and how this relates to other chapters in the book. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction The Common School Community Culture The Common School Revisited Educational Aims Revisited Fostering Difference–Against the Common School Common School or Common School System? Note References.

The article draws upon the work of two people, Lawrence Stenhouse and Derek Morrell, who in the 1960s offered a vision of education based upon,first, the moral conviction that a liberal and humane education was essential for all and for society, second, the belief in a curriculum agenda in which such moral conviction might be reconciled with moral uncertainty, and, third, the recognition of the indispensability of a democratic approach to making that reconciliation possible. The article shows how that vision (...) has been dimmed by a prevailing social philosophy and political practice, sadly abetted by some in universities who should know better. (shrink)

Richard Pring; Philosophy of Education and Educational Practice, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 4, Issue 1, 30 May 2006, Pages 61–75, https://doi.or.

Three issues features as the central themes throughout this book: the nature of social science in general; the nature of educational enquiry in particular; and ...

The paper is concerned with the conflicting principles revealed respectively by those who argue for the common school and by those who seek to promote a system of schools that, though maintained by the state, might reflect the different religious beliefs within the community. The philosopher, John Dewey, is appealed to in defence of the common school, though similar ideas are reflected in the developing comprehensive ideal in Britain.

Educational research is being subject to damaging criticism from both outside and within the research community. The external critics are impatient of research which does not give evidence‐based answers to the questions they ask. The internal critics condemn the very research which seeks to provide those answers. These differences are reflected in the rigid distinction between quantitative and qualitative research. This paper questions the philosophical positions on which such a distinction relies.

Educational research is being subject to damaging criticism from both outside and within the research community. The external critics are impatient of research which does not give evidence-based answers to the questions they ask. The internal critics condemn the very research which seeks to provide those answers. These differences are reflected in the rigid distinction between quantitative and qualitative research. This paper questions the philosophical positions on which such a distinction relies.

Richard Pring; Common Sense and Education, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 11, Issue 1, 30 May 2006, Pages 57–77, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.

This essay explores the contentious relationship between codes of ethics in research and the range of virtues that characterise ethical researchers in the face of the temptations that they face. I argue that the politics of research transforms our ethical appraisals of character and context. Researchers’ duties towards research sponsors, the research team, and university or school, all ought to be brought to bear in particular judgements of ethically sensitive issues where there is no single or undisputed currency. This re-appraisal (...) foregrounds the need seriously to consider the question of the virtues of the educational researcher. (shrink)

Richard Pring; Curriculum Integration, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 5, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 170–200, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.19.

Richard Pring; Philosophy of Education and Educational Practice, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 4, Issue 1, 30 May 2006, Pages 61–75, https://doi.or.

This article outlines and appraises the considerable criticism of educational research, both in the United Kingdom and in North America, and shows how it has pointed to a narrowing of what counts as good or worthwhile research in the policy discourse. In particular, this involved prioritising research that purports to show clearly and unmistakably 'what works', and institutionalising this view of research in a range of centres that receive official approval. The article, though recognising the fruit of such centres, challenges (...) the epistemological basis of such a narrowing of what counts as research, and, in doing so, analyses what is meant by evidence, the different kinds and strengths of evidence and the consequent need to democratise the search and appraisal of evidence in the constant refinement and criticism of the evidence. (shrink)

Abstract:The article draws upon the work of two people, Lawrence Stenhouse and Derek Morrell, who in the 1960s offered a vision of education based upon, first, the moral conviction that a liberal and humane education was essential for all and for society, second, the belief in a curriculum agenda in which such moral conviction might be reconciled with moral uncertainty, and, third, the recognition of the indispensability of a democratic approach to making that reconciliation possible. The article shows how that (...) vision has been dimmed by a prevailing social philosophy and political practice, sadly abetted by some in universities who should know better. (shrink)

The first chapter of this book is entitled ‘A “biographical positioning”’. It gives an account of philosophical seminars held at the Institute of Education nearly forty years ago, where Professor Bridges first developed his interest in, and talent for, philosophy of education. These were indeed seminal, guided by Richard Peters, Paul Hirst, Robert Dearden, John and Patricia White, and Ray Elliot, and influencing a generation of philosophers of education who were strategically employed in university departments and (then) colleges of (...) education. But so what? What has that narrative got to do with the significance and validity of philosophical argument and with our understanding of educational research? (shrink)

ABSTRACT Changing fashions in how the school curriculum is organised are sometimes seen as a regular shift from child‐centred to subject‐centred education, and back again. At the present moment, the British Government is enforcing ‘subject‐centredness’, partly as a reaction to criticism of declining standards attributed to less rigorous child‐centred approaches. On the other hand, other Government initiatives hark back to child‐centred principles. This apparent paradox is partly resolved through a closer analysis of one particular tradition of ‘child‐centred’ education, and of (...) what is represented by ‘subjects’. Such analyses take us necessarily into ethics and epistemology. (shrink)

Terry McLaughlin's sudden death in 2006 deprived the academic world of a leading British philosopher of education, and the author himself of the opportunity to publish a planned synthesis of his work. This volume brings together a collection of his essays from a variety of leading journals. They have been selected by former colleagues well-acquainted with his thinking to celebrate his work and make it available in a convenient and accessible form.

Writing a little over a decade ago of developments in educational philosophy, R. F. Dearden remarked on the dearth of alternative approaches to that of conceptual analysis which predominated, at least in Anglophone cultures, at that time. One possible avenue of enquiry which he identified as conspicuously absent in this respect was the development of a distinctively Catholic approach to problems of educational philosophy, observing that a work of the mid-war years, Maritain's Education at the Crossroads, appeared to be well (...) nigh the only modern effort in this direction. More than a decade on from this, in a climate no longer exclusively dominated by conceptual analysis - indeed, in which there is unprecedented interest in a wealth of different schools, traditions and approaches to philosophy of education - Dearden's remarks about the absence of a distinctively Catholic perspective still apply. In the following essay, therefore, the authors have undertaken, via a critical analysis of Maritain's educational speculations of half a century ago, to try to discern some of the principal issues and considerations which would need to be addressed in the interests of identifying a distinctively Catholic educational philosophy. (shrink)

Writing a little over a decade ago of developments in educational philosophy, R. F. Dearden remarked on the dearth of alternative approaches to that of conceptual analysis which predominated, at least in Anglophone cultures, at that time. One possible avenue of enquiry which he identified as conspicuously absent in this respect was the development of a distinctively Catholic approach to problems of educational philosophy, observing that a work of the mid-war years, Maritain's Education at the Crossroads (1943), appeared to be (...) well nigh the only modern effort in this direction. More than a decade on from this, in a climate no longer exclusively dominated by conceptual analysis - indeed, in which there is unprecedented interest in a wealth of different schools, traditions and approaches to philosophy of education - Dearden's remarks about the absence of a distinctively Catholic perspective still apply. In the following essay, therefore, the authors have undertaken, via a critical analysis of Maritain's educational speculations of half a century ago, to try to discern some of the principal issues and considerations which would need to be addressed in the interests of identifying a distinctively Catholic educational philosophy. (shrink)

_Education, Ethics and Experience_ is a collection of original philosophical essays celebrating the work of one of the most influential philosophers of education of the last 40 years. Richard Pring’s substantial body of work has addressed topics ranging from curriculum integration to the comprehensive ideal, vocational education to faith schools, professional development to the privatisation of education, moral seriousness to the nature of educational research. The twelve essays collected here explore and build on Pring’s treatment of topics (...) that are central to the field of philosophy of education and high on the agenda of education policy-makers. The essays are by no means uncritical: some authors disagree sharply with Pring; others see his arguments as useful but incomplete, in need of addition or amendment. But all acknowledge their intellectual debt to him and recognise him as a giant on whose shoulders they stand. This book will be a welcome and lively read for educational academics, researchers and students of Educational Studies and Philosophy. (shrink)

Professor Richard Pring's BJES Vol. 48, No. 1 editorial shares a widespread unease regarding government centralisation of state-funded research (not only on education). Unfortunately the editorial compromises with this trend by suggesting it is obvious to academic experts where research should be so concentrated. Instead, an alternative model of research is advocated to counter so far as is possible the tendency towards centralisation.

The Critique of the Quantum Power of Judgement analyzes the a priori principles which underlie the empirical knowledge provided by quantum theory. In contrast to other transcendental approaches to quantum physics, none of the transcendental principles established by Kant is modified in order to cope with the new epistemological situation that arises with the asumption of the quantum postulate. Rather, by considering Bohr's views, it is argued that classical concepts provide the mathematical formalism of quantum theory with physical reference through (...) symbolic analogies in the strict Kantian sense. The main result of the investigation is the determination of the highest principle under which quantum objects are subsumed. This principle states that the conditions of the possibility of the systematic unity of contextual experience are at the same time the conditions of the possibility of quantum objects. Upon this principle rests the possibility of any a priori synthetic knowledge of quantum objects. Therefore, the Critique of the Quantum Power of Judgement yields the prolegomena to any future quantum metaphysics. (shrink)

En este trabajo nos proponemos estudiar los vínculos que Cassirer establece entre los conceptos de causalidad, invariancia y sistematicidad en el conocimiento de la física. Para ello, comenzaremos considerando el marco general en el que se inscribe el análisis que Cassirer realiza. Este marco es el provisto por el método trascendental. En segundo lugar, consideraremos el principio de causalidad de Kant a la luz de su distinción entre principios constitutivos y principios regulativos de la experiencia. Luego, discutiremos las dificultades que (...) Cassirer encuentra en la doctrina kantiana de la causalidad. Más adelante nos referiremos al sistema de los enunciados de la física, para poder así determinar el modo en el que se relacionan los conceptos de causalidad, invariancia y sistematicidad. (shrink)

This classic, provocative introduction to classical metaphysical questions focuses on appreciating the problems, rather than attempting to proffer answers.